As you may or may not know, we are involved in a ministry called To Every Nation. Kent recently took the role as President of this ministry, being the first staff member (while also raising support). This ministry's mission is "Bringing Hope to the Least of These", and this means loving, serving, and meeting needs in the name of Jesus to the poor, diseased, widowed, orphan... all while sharing/showing the Gospel. One of Kent's many responsibilities (and mine as well, being his wife) is to bring awareness of what God is doing through TEN and raise funds for this ministry in order to fulfill its purpose and mission. TEN is privileged to be a part of supporting and aiding 2 orphanages in Peru, and there are several more opportunities on the horizon around the world. The purpose of this post to express my opinion and my frustration with a particular mentality that some people have, and honestly I have also been guilty until recent years.
What is the issue that is causing my frustration?
*** "I don't want to contribute to administrative costs or salaries. I want ALL of it to go towards a tangible need." ***
FIRST, let me say that giving in and of itself to a tangible need is awesome and good and wonderful and needed. I do NOT want to convey that I don't want people to do this, b/c LORD KNOWS I want you to! BUT, there is NO way ministries like TEN or Children's Hopechest, or Samaritan's Purse, or iGoGlobal, or Project61, or those of the like could keep doing what they are doing without administrative costs or people like you and me giving towards just the basic functioning of the ministry and its costs.
For example...
1) Salaries - People give their LIVES to these organizations/ministries and causes so they can work full time. If the $ wasn't there, they couldn't work full time and less productivity would be accomplished, less people on the field, less Truth being shared, less aid being rendered, less Love being shared around the world.
2)Overhead - Website expenses, Recruiting costs for trips (travel, mileage, meals), Paper costs for printing newsletters to keep supporters aware of what God is doing through this ministry, electricity/water so there can be an office space to work and collaborate, Phones, postage, receipts, etc.
3) Travel - to scout future opportunities for God's love to be shared and needs to be met, to maintain relationships with partners, accountability/encouragement.
These are just a few I can think of, and we are a very SMALL ministry!
Now, I say this also knowing that there ARE good organizations doing good things (we can name a few) that have CEOs getting richer and are living a ridiculously extravagant life while working for an organization aiding those broken, hurting, and longing for their next meal and I do NOT approve. The line has been crossed. (Although, some could say we also live an extravagant life and we are conscious of this very thing on a daily basis. Our desire is to give and love extravagantly and sacrificially. If we don't, we must change something. We don't want to increase our standard of living, only our standard of giving.)
SECOND, since the Church as a whole isn't stepping up and taking care of these needs in our community and around the world, there is a HUGE need for ministries like this. So give to your church for SURE, but also stretch yourself and give towards ministries like these... give extravagantly and sacrificially, even it is means 4% goes towards admin. costs!
Lastly, do your research! MANY ministries/organizations are open about their expenses and even show how monies are spent on their website. Some are not. If you aren't comfortable, make a phone call and talk to someone about it. If you still aren't comfortable, look somewhere else... but don't that keep you from giving! Remember, it is needed... but some may need more than others!! (I may be a little biased. :)
"He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing." Deuteronomy 10:18
"If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother." Deuteronomy 15:7
Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
—Luke 21:1-4
7 years ago
1 comment:
Oh hey. I'm brave enough to comment here. As the Executive Director of a faith-based nonprofit myself, I could speak volumes on this subject. Most of our marketing materials and website have been created by friends or contracted out at a significant discount. Some of it was decent, some of it was subpar - but good stewardship of donor dollars is supposed to trump any and all design concerns, right? Then I went to the T4A conference this last fall and saw row upon row of orphan/foster/adopt related exhibitors. 95% of them were all passing out the same poorly junk that I was. We are, as a people group, selling the orphan community incredibly short in our effort to convince donors that it takes NOTHING to run an organization. If we are serious about actually changing the world, we ought to be spending enough administrative/organizational dollars that we can hire the cream of the crop to design and market for us so that we can build CAPACITY for our organizations rather than just trying to pay the bills or fund the next phase of our projects. Compassion, just as an FYI, was one of the orgs that stood out at that conference as marketing their cause well. You know how much they spend on Admin? 16%. I'm shooting for 12-15% and I'm going to reeducate my donors about the reality of running an organization in the process.
Post a Comment